Homeless Voice; The Dark Days Aren't Over

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FLORIDA’S LARGEST STREET NEWSPAPER Our Purpose: To Help the Homeless Learn How to Help Themselves

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The COSAC Foundation’s Motel 8 in Lake City.

A Home for Everyone: The Veterans Inn Story by Rupal Ramesh Shah | Photos by Andrew Fraieli

“W

e can put a man on the moon. We can blast a bomb 5,000 miles away from us and hit our target the size of a postage stamp, yet we cannot figure out how to put a roof on everyone’s head in America,” said Sean Cononie.

With this thought, Cononie — head of the COSAC Foundation — started the Veterans Inn in January 2017. Cononie’s idea stemmed from the suicide and homeless rates of veterans in the state of Florida, where the shelter is based. When it comes to suicide, he added, time is of the essence, and in such cases it’s crucial to have appropriate housing available immediately.

Ginny Dangola, the director of operations, says the name of the shelter is based on the needs Cononie saw, but the inn is open to anyone who needs a shelter in Lake City.

Cononie also passionately discussed the need to have more services and solutions for long-term housing for the homeless.

He believes that the homeless have been forgotten in America and that more attention should be paid to them and their needs.

It began as a transitional home for those undergoing homelessness and has since been a place where the homeless have not just gone to survive, but also thrive. Dangola proudly tells of people who thrived leaving the shelter as well, like one person who joined the Navy after staying at the Veterans Inn for a couple years.

Another resident saved up enough money to move to a nearby state and is now working as the manager of a McDonald’s. “ E v e r y o n e becomes a part of your life here,” she continued. “It’s great to see them thriving and doing well.”

The Veterans Inn houses approximately 25 people, ages 30 to 60 years, with a mixture of men and women. Some have individual rooms and some have shared rooms, dependent on their specific needs. In order to determine eligibility, residents go through a background check and personal interviews to ensure they are a good fit.

A program fee is required from residents as they are provided three meals a day; for those who cannot work or do not have any income, their stay is free based on availability.

Additionally, the Veterans Inn organizes their medical appointments and arranges transportation on a bi-weekly

“

basis for residents to go shopping.

According to Dangola, the funds to support the Veterans Inn comes from private donations as well as profits from the sales of the Homeless Voice, their street n e w s p a p e r.

They do not accept government funding as the funds come with restrictions a n d stipulations on how they can be used.

Certain government funding agencies, for example, have specific outcome requirements like once a homeless individual leaves a shelter, he or she cannot return unless they have lived elsewhere on their own for at least 12 months. Age restrictions of who can be housed are another, of which Cononie agrees with neither.

The shelter has many partners and supporters in the community from a local organization bringing leftover donuts

Everyone who lives at the Veterans Inn is like family to us and we never ask anyone to leave, until they are ready.

“

Continued on Pg. 2

The Homeless Voice | Vol. 20 Issue 6, 2019 1

About the Homeless Voice The Homeless Voice houses, feeds, and finds jobs for anyone who is homeless. We serve up to 500 homeless daily and serve over 45,000 meals each month.

The Homeless Voice distributes a street newspaper in all major cities throughout Florida including Tallahassee, Lake City, Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Daytona, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami.

COSAC Foundation PO Box 292-577 Davie, FL 33329 954-924-3571

The Homeless Voice Newspaper has three functions.

Publisher: Sean Cononie Editor in Chief: Mark Targett Executive Editor: Sara Cunningham Creative Director: Andrew Fraieli Contributer: Rupal Shah

1) Educate the public on homelessness and poverty issues 2) Provide temporary employment to those without a job 3) Raise additional funds for the Florida based shelter We have grown into a multifaceted agency that feeds, shelters, and arranges for each homeless person to receive the necessary access to social and non-compulsory religious services to enable a return to a self-reliant lifestyle.

For the small percentage of people incapable of living independent lives, we provide a caring and supportive environment for their long-term residency.

Cover photo by Andrew Fraieli

Join our fleet of Monthly Angels today: Fill out this form and along with your check for $25 mail to:

Monthly Angel Program PO Box 292-577 Davie, Fl 33329 First Name: ________________________________________ Last Name: _________________________________________ Address: _______________________________________________________________________________________ Your contribution keeps our organization afloat! Our Angels are a very important part of our service and ease the burden of our monthly bills.

Thank you for your help in caring for our poor! With your donation, we are happy to send you our Homeless Voice newspaper.

Choose your preferred method of subscription below:

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Thank you for your support Angels! Your support keeps our doors open!

Continued from Pg. 1

for the residents on Wednesday nights, to one supporter donating eight gallons of milk on a weekly basis and a local plumbing store donating cases of toilet paper regularly.

In order to keep the Veterans Inn residents active and engaged, Dangola says, they organize several programs and activities for the residents like cookouts, movie nights, and game nights. Once in a while, they even take the residents out for a movie.

In addition to Dangola, the Veterans Inn is staffed by three to four people who work in the kitchen, one assistant who works for Dangola, and two to three people who provide cleaning services. Five of the staff members also live at the Veterans Inn. According to Stratten, a veteran and resident of the inn, ‘’The hardest part

2

about being homeless is shelter.” He added that the homeless people are the most persecuted people in society. Ramona Montayne, another resident, thought she was going to die from drug addiction until she came to the shelter.

In talking to Dangola, it’s clear that she’s passionate about the Veterans Inn, having been working with the COSAC Foundation for many years. She works there to keep her mind active, and her job has let her build many relationships that she cherishes.

Cononie passionately discusses the need to have more services and solutions for long-term housing for the homeless. He believes that the homeless have been forgotten in America and he hopes to help change that.

Ginny Dangola in the front office of the Veteran’s Inn.

The Homeless Voice | Vol. 20 Issue 6, 2019

Monthly Angels

Donate Online: HomelessVoice.org/Members | Donations are tax deductable & help South Florida’s Homeless Andy Herrmann Anna Hadley Anne Jahre Angela Martinez Barbara Robinson Bill & Laura Fash Caroline Vidal Center for Social Change Charles & Tracy Rice Cody Anderson Dana Jackson Daniel Guevara David Reiff Edwin H Kluge Jr Elizabeth L Strauss

Eylin Cuadra Frank Pamelia GI Enterprises & Associates, Inc Gerald Keller Greentree Financial Group Gregory Smith Ileana Dubovici Jared Carrell John Dinielli John & Linda Evans John Pascale Jorge Herrera Jorge Sanchez Joseph Maiuro Kelly Filer

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Current Country-Wide Homelessness 2018 Sheltered: 358,363 people Unsheltered: 194,467 people Total: 552,820 people In Florida: 31,030 people According to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

~Cathy’s Prayer List~ Brian Jeff Betsy Romeo Maggie The Kalins Devon Diane Karm

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The Homeless Voice | Vol. 20 Issue 6, 2019 3

The Pottinger Agreement Abolished

Story by Rupal Ramesh Shah

T “

he homeless are once again set up to struggle against the city of Miami and its police as the Pottinger Agreement was abolished in federal court on Feb. 15, 2019.

The city claimed, in its legal filing to end the agreement, that it had created numerous homeless outreach services including shelter beds, new jaildiversion programs for the homeless and mentally ill, and the creation of a full time Department of Veterans Affairs and Homeless Services. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said these multiple shelters and social services form a safety net for the homeless rendering the specific protections in the Pottinger Agreement unnecessary.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez supported Moreno’s decision. Gonzalez said, “The circumstances today have changed, and the Pottinger Agreement restricts the City from acting in the best interest of homeless persons and residents in general.

Without the constraints of the Pottinger Agreement we can better provide services for the homeless with dignity and compassion.”

One set of constraints mentioned in the legal filing was their inability to search homeless people’s belongings for bombs or weapons — which they say is necessary to keep everyone safe — as the agreement was written before Sept. 11 and the Boston Marathon bombing.

According to the Miami New Times, even with the Pottinger Agreement in place, the homeless have continued to suffer as the police have harassed the homeless on more than one occasion. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated that the Pottinger Agreement is necessary and have continued to advocate for it.

The agreement came about from a class action lawsuit by 5,000 homeless individuals and the ACLU against the city of Miami in 1988. After ten years, in 1998, the city settled on the agreement which ensured that the police could not arrest the homeless or destroy their belongings. Instead, they had to give the homeless a chance to enter a shelter before arresting them.

According to Ben Waxman, the ACLU attorney who worked on the 1988 Pottinger lawsuit, the city has been trying to sweep the homeless out of the downtown area for months with “recent aggressive gentrification” raising property values.

The city’s attorneys had also stated another reason to end the Pottinger Agreement is due to the growth of the residential population and commercial activity in Miami.

“The rapid gentrification of Miami in the 20 years since the signing of the Pottinger Agreement does not mean that the city can return to the failed policy of trying to use the criminal justice system to address homelessness in Miami,” continued Waxman, who is also the lead counsel in the Pottinger case.

The legal director of ACLU Florida, Nancy Abudu, says the city trying to dissolve the Pottinger agreement shows there are issues of criminalizing homelessness all over florida, “Rather than using the criminal justice system to go after those with so little foothold in society, cities should focus resources on treating the underlying causes of homelessness.”

In response to the court’s ruling, Waxman said, “For over thirty years, the Greater Miami Chapter of the ACLU of Florida has fought for the constitutional rights of people experiencing homelessness in Miami. Homeless people historically have had their rights violated and are often not treated with compassion or dignity. We are still evaluating the possibility of an appeal. We hope the City will live up to the trust the court has placed in it to continue to uphold the rights of homeless persons in Miami.”

Waxman admits he doesn’t have the answers to reduce or eliminate homelessness, but he doesn’t believe that the current solutions are working and knows new approaches are needed.

One set of constraints mentioned in the legal filing was their inability to search homeless people’s belongings for bombs or weapons — which they say is necessary to keep everyone safe...

“

“

Homeless people historically have had their rights violated and are often not treated with compassion or dignity.

We are still evaluating the possibility of an appeal.

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The Homeless Voice | Vol. 20 Issue 6, 2019

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dark days Story by Andrew Fraieli

A documentary of the homeless in 1990s New York tried to bring attention to housing issues that still persist today

The Broken

O

n August 30, 2000 the documentary “Dark Days” was released.

It begins with the bangs and whistles of an Amtrak train leaving the station, then flatly cuts to a man walking down a dark road. Jumping back to the piercing whistle of the train, we see a rounding tunnel view, then silence; the man is now in a park. The sound of the rattling train comes once again through a grate in a wall as it pans; the sounds echoing, the image changing to the same man — now with a flashlight — dropping into a narrow hole in the ground.

Darkness envelops and the camera follows him down a concrete slope to a flat-bottomed tunnel.

Walking, we see a pile of wood, then another man, then a pile of wood with a door. Finally, we hear the first man speak.

“When I first came down into the tunnel, it looked dangerous, man. It was lookin’ real dangerous, ‘cause even in the daytime it was dark. And, like, I was scared. I said, ‘Somewhere down the line, it can’t be as bad as it is up top.’ Because out in the street, you had kids f**kin’ with you, you had the police f**kin’ with you, I mean, anybody can walk by you while you’re sleeping on a bench and bust

you in the head. At least down in the tunnel you ain’t gotta worry about that, ‘cause ain’t nobody in their right mind gonna come down here.”

The tunnel he’s referencing is an abandoned subway tunnel under Riverside Park in Manhattan. It started to become a home for the homeless in the 1970s according to the New York Times archives — the people escaped harassment, the law, and the elements in this dark abandoned tunnel.

The film was created by Marc Singer who, at the time, had no filmmaking experience according to an interview with Indiewire in 2000. He befriended the people living down there and, using borrowed cameras, expired film, and volunteered time, started to film the problems these people faced to help draw attention to their troubles, and hopefully earn them some money.

The film premiered at the Sundance Festival in 2000, showing not just the harsh routine the homeless lived, but eventually the Amtrak police trying to kick them out from their only home.

About two thirds through the film, it transitions from their day-to-day struggle — like selling “nasty” books and collecting cans for cash —

Still from film | One of many shelters built from scrap brought to the tunnels from above.

into this dilemma of being forced from homes they painstakingly built from scraps in a tunnel described

by Singer in Indiewire as “...pitch black, rats running around everywhere, garbage, and smells that make your eyes water.”

One man showers in a cold drip of water coming from a crack in the ceiling, while another goes off to feed dogs he keeps hidden away — shovelling the shit they leave behind and bringing them food to eat. Another man debates the difference between smoking weed and crack — a previous crack addict himself — trying to convince his newly accepted roommate to quit like he did and stick to marijuana.

Then, a still from the film describes an ultimatum, “In response to external pressures, armed Amtrak police are ordered into the tunnel to tell the residents that they have 30 days to pack up and evacuate or face a forcible eviction. Filming was prohibited.”

According to the residents, the police — armed with guns — came banging on doors and shouting orders to come out of their shelters.

“They said they wanted me to clean that shit up, I said I ain’t cleaning shit up. I got to move f**k I ain’t cleaning that shit up, you must be mad; take me to jail. That’s making their job much easier and shit,” said one of the homeless residents. “Last time, they was here during the winter, they said we had to leave. They said they were gonna do it in a humane way; we were gonna sit down at a table, gonna be some big wheels from Amtrak to discuss where we gonna go at.”

This, he says, did not happen, “Last time they was just here, they tell me they don’t give a f**k where we go. We just gotta go and shit.”

Shelters were a given solution to living in the tunnels, according to another man living underground, but they would rather be left alone down below.

“They said they were gonna try to get us housing or shelter or something else; I don’t know what that something else is,” says another resident. “I don’t wanna go to a shelter ‘cause I don’t wanna worry about them stealing my shit. They’re gonna steal all my clothes, they’re gonna steal everything I got.

Drugs; it’s infected with drugs. What they should do is leave us down here. That’s what they should do.”

“We’re over here, down here by ourselves my friend, like family,” says yet another resident. “Man, you’re gunna break up the whole family. It’s not worth it man, it’s not fair to us.”

The Bandage

S

witching to a daylight street, the film interviews Ben Harris at the Coalition for the Homeless in New York. He speaks on a previously won case defending the homeless from getting removed from Penn station by the Amtrak Police, and how the coalition wanted to go to court over the tunnel situation as well. This time they were able to meet with Amtrak officials before legal action.

“We met with Amtrak officials and they were, at first, very abrupt. They wanted everybody out.

Had to be in a few days, they were gonna fence it off, put in security guards. And we worked out

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The Homeless Voice | Vol. 20 Issue 6, 2019

a plan that we would assist people into moving into temporary shelter if Amtrak would not evict people. But soon thereafter we learned of a program run by the federal government — a Section 8 program — and we guaranteed Amtrak that no one would be left inside of the tunnels,” says Harris.

The program he mentions is referenced in the film by a still of a New York Times article titled, “U.S. to Offer Housing Vouchers To Lure Homeless From the Subways”. It was started in 1994 after then Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Henry G. Cisneros toured

Still from film | When asked the money he’ll earn from collecting bottle Fridays, if I work all day, about $70.”

es, “On

the subway tunnels and witnessed the people who lived there. “One of the fellows could hardly speak for scratching his body and he described living with the rats and the lice,” Cisneros had said.

According to the same article, “Seven local nonprofit agencies will be given a total of 250 vouchers to distribute to the homeless,” with the program given a $9 million grant and transit police estimating that 1,500 may be living in the tunnels.

Harris continues on their use of the then new

program, “The Section 8 program, the housing program here in New York City, is a great ticket into housing. It guarantees someone an apartment, helps pay the brokers and the security fees. So it was a perfect chance, and I think Amtrak knew that it’s a good opportunity to work with advocates rather than having a legal challenge.

And on our part, on civil liberties’ part, we were pretty confident. Had we had to go to court, we would have won. It was a crystal-clear violation of people’s rights. But we didn’t want to defend

Still from film | Recounting the scene when armed Amtrak police ordered him out of his shelter to speak.

people to live on the street. We wanted to get them into housing. That was the ultimate goal.”

And it was a goal they were able to meet.

The film fades one of their structures into view, different sized plywood nailed together, blankets covering holes, and one panel being pushed off from inside. A head pops out, “We’re outta here!”

The Coalition for the Homeless was able to get around 40 vouchers for the people living in the tunnels according to the New York Times article on the people living underground.

The scenes continue of sledge hammers smashing walls, and people packing. “It’s hard to believe it’s our last day in this place,” a resident says. “I thought this day would never come,” another responds. They were tasked with destroying their own shelters before leaving, and did so with the gusto of having a better place to go.

The film ends with the homeless who got vouchers explaining their plans in their new apartment, describing new furniture, jobs, and carpets, “It never will happen again. Ever, ever, ever. Never, never, ever happen. I will never go homeless again.

That was like a nightmare. You know? And I woke up out of it, and I’m staying awake.”

But at the end of the same New York Times article from 1994 was a statement from then Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless Mary Brosnahan, “I’m afraid that every six months there’s some show that gets trotted out and people read about it and think something’s being done, but nothing really changes on the streets. If the same secretary who’s trying this bold move is willing to give us a hundred or a thousandfold this number of Section 8 vouchers, that will make a difference. But this demonstration program will not.”

The possible

I

n 2019, 19 years after the film premiered and 24 since it was filmed, Brosnahan appears correct.

These people lived in the tunnel as a way to escape the prejudice of the above ground world. The world of public and police harassment, police harassment, and not being able to afford more than a park bench at night. These “tunnel people” may have gotten homes, and brought attention to the issues that were being shoved off, but their success hasn’t lasted through the years.

Fortunately, there are more options to solve those problems than before, even if they aren’t perfect. A concept being used today is called Housing First that prioritizes giving the homeless a home similar to the Section 8 program in the film.

Rudy Salinas, the Program Director of Housing Works LA, explains on “Adam Ruins Everything” that “with Housing First we prioritize putting people who experience chronic homelessness in their own permanent housing. Once we put a person in an apartment we are able to address all the issues and causes of why they became homeless in the first place.”

According to their website, 98% of people they house — generally chronically homeless people — stay housed. The idea exists in Florida as well, with research being done on its viability through yearly reports on the homeless population by the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness.

They define housing first in the report as “an approach to ending homelessness that centers on providing permanent housing first and then providing services such as mental health assistance as needed.”

It’s explained in the 2014 Florida Homelessness report — by the same commission — that 107 chronically homeless individuals were used as a sample in exploring the housing first concept.

“Providing permanent supportive housing” for them they say, saves “a minimum of $21,014 per

person per year, or $2,248,498 per year if the entire group were housed.”

They continue that even in a non-perfect situation money is saved: “Using Housing First and Permanent Supportive Housing models achieving a 90% Housing Retention Rate allowing for a 10% rate of recidivism, would still provide an annual community cost savings of $2,023,648.”

The housing first solution is seen as a factually effective solution as well, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families Council on Homelessness report of 2017, “Housing first is recognized as an evidence-based best practice, is cost effective, and results in better outcomes as compared to other approaches.”

Many other approaches include a stipulation that they participate in programs to help health issues before they can get housing. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “Housing First does not mandate participation in services either before obtaining housing or in order to retain housing.”

Housing First is not perfect, as Salinas describes while comparing strategies, “Seeing a person who’s been on the streets for dozens of years and expecting them to suddenly understand

what rent looks like and how to turn the lights on is something quite different, it’s daunting.”

It was daunting, as well, to solve the problem of removing people from living in tunnels with all sides winning, but it happened. It wasn’t instantaneous and — comparing to today — it wasn’t a final solution either, but Housing First now exists in some form in 17 states.

As this solution, and others, continue as an option in today’s world, at least the dark days are already over for some.

Still from film | “I love my apartment. All the little money I made when I hustled or made when I was out there, I’m putting it all back in here in this apartment.”

Still from film | “They said they were going to do it in a humane way...last time they was just here, they tell me they don’t give a fuck where we go. We just gotta go and shit.”

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Looking for fun and friendly newspaper vendors interested in becoming their own boss.

Contact Ginny 386-758-8080

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The Homeless Voice | Vol. 20 Issue 6, 2019

How Homelessness is Measured and 2018’s Count

Story by Andrew Fraieli

T

he word “homeless” doesn’t differentiate between the person with a job staying at different shelters, and the teen from a troubled home sleeping by the train tracks. “Homeless” doesn’t helpfully define who is potentially going to freeze to death sleeping outside, and who is between jobs camping in the woods full time; it’s a word that is fluid and changes in context.

So, how does the government define the amount of homeless in the country and track this fluid number every year?

The tactic used by the government is called a “point in time count.” According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, it’s “an unduplicated count

on a single night of the people in a community who are experiencing homelessness that includes both sheltered and unsheltered populations.”

This count includes people living in shelters and people unsheltered who are counted every other year to be included, all done by outreach workers and volunteers who go out to find the unsheltered people.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gives a yearly assessment report to Congress with numbers pertaining to different situational types of homeless in the country. They get these numbers because counts described above are required by communities that receive funds from the federal Mckinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant program.

The terms used by the report to break down the numbers

are defined in the sidebar, but include the difference between sheltered and unsheltered homeless, different counts for youth, veterans, families, and people who are chronically homeless.

Published in December of 2018, the Annual Homeless Assessment Report states, “On a single night in January 2018, 552,830 people experienced homelessness in the United States.” This breaks down to about 65% being sheltered, and 35% unsheltered.

In that single night count, 20% or 111,592 were under 18, 9% were between the ages of 18 and 24 — with about 51% of that age range being unsheltered — and 71% were over the age of 24.

37,878 veterans were found homeless, accounting

552,830

“On a single night in January 2018,

Individual

Terms Used

A person who is not part of a family with children during an episode of homelessness.

Chronically Homeless

Sheltered Homeless

An individual with a disability who has been continuously homeless for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time homeless in those occasions is at least 12 months.

People who are staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, or safe havens.

Unsheltered Homeless People whose primary nighttime location is a public or private place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for people (for example, the streets, vehicles, or parks).

Unaccompanied Homeless Youth People in households with only children who are not part of a family with children or accompanied by their parent or guardian during their episode of homelessness, and who are under the age of 18.

31,030 “In Florida, about

were found to be homeless...”

Largest homeless population

Smallest homeless population

Cali.

MISS.

129,972

1,352

people experienced homelessness in the United States.”

for just under 9% of homeless adults, with 62% or 23,312 being sheltered and 38% “staying in places not suitable for human habitation.” The amount of veterans experiencing homelessness has decreased by 48% though since 2009 with the current count in 2018 being a new low.

In terms of families, “180,413 people were homeless in 56,342 families with children, representing onethird (33%) of the total homeless population in 2018.” 90% or 164,023 of the people experiencing homelessness in a family were sheltered though, with only 16,390 unsheltered.

The last major category in the report is chronic homelessness, with 24%, or 88,640 of homeless individuals showing chronic issues with homelessness; 65% or 57,886 of those people were unsheltered. The report also mentions that “the number of individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness increased by two percent between 2017 and 2018 but is 26 percent lower than it was in 2007.”

In Florida, about 31,030 were found to be homeless, but had a rate of homelessness less than the national average — being 17 per 10,000 people — at 15 per 10,000. Florida did have the largest unsheltered population though at 7% of the total homeless population, or 13,393 people.

As a comparison, the state with the largest homeless population was California with 129,972 people at a rate of 33 per 10,000 people. The state with the lowest rate of homelessness was Mississippi with 5 in 10,00 and a total of 1,352 homeless.

Compared to 2017, the rate amount of homeless raised by only 0.3%.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness acknowledges that this “point in time” count is not without flaws, “There is variation in count methodology year-to-year within and across communities. Unsheltered counts have more limitations than sheltered counts and there is more variation in methodology.”

Even so, these “point in time” counts are the only way to track unsheltered homeless as they have to be found by volunteers according to their page on the matter, “despite its flaws, the annual pointin-time counts result in the most reliable estimate of people experiencing homelessness in the United States from which progress can be measured.”

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Hostile Architecture: The Indirect Public Fight on the Homeless Story by Andrew Fraieli

D

efensive architecture; hostile architecture; anti-homeless spike; bum-proof benches; urban planning; well-being; right to public space.

These are the keywords in a research paper debating the ethics of architecture in public spaces that “exclude ‘unwanted’ behaviors and people.”

Unwanted behaviors like skateboarders roughing up ledges, and unwanted people like the homeless sleeping in public places; public property being used by the public, but cities fighting back through hostile architecture nonetheless. The idea of architecture in public places manipulating certain peoples and behaviors isn’t new, but it’s hidden and affects everyday lives like the homeless who depend on a park bench at night.

This fight exists as anti-homeless spikes, put on large windows sills and along the ground, bumproof benches with armrests and ridges to prevent laying on, and even as simple as bus stop benches with only a backrest. It’s subtle changes that may go unnoticed by someone who doesn’t spend most of their time there.

A research paper titled “Hostile urban architecture: A critical discussion of the seemingly offensive art of keeping people away” by Karl de Fine Licht debates the ethics of it. Mostly on possible harmful effects of the architecture to the public in general, but declines to make a definite decision. It does make clear that these designs hinder the ability to lay down to sleep, and even aim to “dissuade panhandling.”

Included in the paper’s examples of hostile architecture are variations beside a change to existing physical objects, such as judding rocks under bridges where the homeless might find shelter. It might be an addition of a new object, something less conspicuous than spikes — like a large potted plant — put where panhandlers might congregate. Another example is a lack of benches at all in places like a mall.

The paper’s largest focus is on the existing argument as to whether defensive/hostile architecture is harmful to the well-being of the general public.

Whether the architecture hinders the homeless in public spaces is just accepted as a consequence without argument.

The benches have changed so the homeless can’t lay on them, but generally passersby can sit without noticing anything other than an odd shaped bench.

Corners of building and grounds will have spikes on them, but pedestrians wouldn’t be walking over there anyways. The ground under bridges have boulders molded into them, but the average person doesn’t seek out those places, so would never notice.

All around this architecture goes almost unnoticed as it changes the way streets look and changes how people function in them, but some research it, and others write on it. The research paper being only one of many writings on the camouflaged hostility.

The BBC published a piece back in 2013 interviewing Selena Savic, a co-author of an entire book on hostile architecture called “Unpleasant Design.” The book is no debate on ethics, it is a look at how this way of building away certain behaviors is a factual hindrance — citing much of the same examples as above.

There is even a website, Hostiledesign.org — run

by Stuart Semple, a British artist — dedicated to bringing attention to these “designs against humanity,” as it says on the homepage.

A repeatedly cited example, in the research paper and the BBC piece, is a Camden bench. A chunky, angled slab of concrete — and designed that way on purpose; it’s mentioned in the research paper as a category all its own in forceful measures of hostile design.

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Wikipedia | Camden bench designed to deter sleeping (angled) , littering, skateboarding (angled), drug dealing (no underside), graffiti (anti-paint coating), and theft (weighs 1765 kg).

Wikipedia | Bolts on French front steps to deter sleeping and sitting.

Periodic bars placed to making sleeping impossible.

With its angles, sleeping atop it is practically impossible; with its anti-paint coating, graffiti is impossible; its lack of crevices is claimed by its creators to deter drug-use as there is nowhere to hide anything, and there is no back rest.

Another issue with these designs, and with a bench as armored against the public as the Camden bench, is that “they are non-negotiable,” Savic said to BBC. “If you have a policeman prohibiting people to sit somewhere, you can still fight with this policeman,

Hiddenhostilitydc.com | Spikes built onto a wall in D.C. to prevent sitting.

or argue with him, you can do things. When you have a bench that has armor, you can’t really as a human do anything about it.”

The public is seen by these writers, researchers and artists as the victim. Semple, on Hostile Design, says “It often attacks the most vulnerable people in our community, regularly the homeless,” which is a mirrored sentiment in Savic’s book as well. To Semple, it’s no debate, “it sends out a very clear signal, that certain people aren’t wanted.”

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The

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Aren’t Over It’s been 19 years since a documentary on homelessness in New York was released, but it’s still a major issue.